Mar29

Shadow Minister of Police Zakhele Mbhele said Nathi Nhleko needed to speed up the roll-out of the Narcotics Enforcement Bureau in priority clusters.

Mbhele was reacting to the deaths of four young people in Durban during the past week – all of which were connected to the illicit drug trade in the region. Mbhele wants for there to be a crackdown, urgently.

“After President Zuma announced that these specialised anti-drug units would be established, I wrote to Minister Nhleko requesting information on the detailed implementation plan for the Narcotics Enforcement Bureau but to date there has been no response,” said a concerned Mbhele.

“This should not be a difficult task. The South African Police Service should start by reconvening what is left of the personnel who constituted the specialised anti-drug units that were disastrously disbanded by former National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi in 2006.
“The next step must be to identify priority clusters where the initial reconstituted units would begin their focused investigations and intelligence-led policing operations,” added the Shadow Minister.

“The setting up of a task team to address the emerging crisis, as has been reported, is not adequate to ensure a long-term, sustainable solution. The ‘task team’ approach has been the default modus operandi of the SAPS to deal with syndicate crime since specialised units were disbanded, from vehicle hijacking to gang violence, but its impact has always been short-lived and failed to stop year-on-year increases in drug-related crime and aggravated robberies.”